A writing by Mao Tse-Tung, the late Chairman of Chinese Communist Politburo. This piece is an excerpt is from Book V called “Revolt.” This chapter pertains to “The struggle to abolish injustice; the battle cries of the new army which is gathering for the deliverance of humanity.”

The revolt of the peasants in the countryside disturbed the sweet dreams of the gentry. When news about the countryside reached the cities, the gentry there immediately burst into an uproar. When I first arrived in Changsa, I met people from various circles and picked up a good deal of street gossip. From the middle strata upwards to the right-wingers of the Kuomintang, there was not a single person who did not summarize the whole thing in one phrase: “An awful mess!” Even quite revolutionary people, carried away by the opinion of the “awful mess” school which prevailed like a storm over the whole city, became downhearted at the very thought of the conditions in the countryside, and could not deny the word “mess.” Even very progressive people could only remark, “Indeed a mess, but inevitable in the course of the revolution.” In a word, nobody could categorically deny the word “mess.”

But the fact is, as stated above, that the broad peasant masses have risen to fulfill their historic mission, that the democratic forces in the rural areas have risen to overthrow the rural feudal power. The patriarchal-feudal class of local bullies, bad gentry and lawless landlords has formed the basis of autocratic government for thousands of years, the cornerstone of imperialism, warlordism and corrupt officialdom. To overthrow this feudal power is the real objective of the national revolution. What Dr. Sun Yat-Sen wanted to do in the forty years he devoted to the national revolution but failed to accomplish, the peasants have accomplished in a few months. This is a marvelous feat which has never been achieved in the last forty or even thousands of years. It is very good indeed. It is not a “mess” at all. It is anything but an “awful mess.”

A good article in The Guardian from Jan. 21st reports that the members of the inner circle of power in China are grossing large sums of money through corruption and then investing it overseas (mainly in the British Virgin Islands [BVI]) to avoid local discovery and taxation.

Rampant corruption is the main problem with communism in large nations, which excludes countries such as Cuba and Vietnam. They’re, in my opinion, are small enough to allow the good guys to keep and eye on everybody and the population seems more loyal to the ideology.

Though officially banned by the Central Government, forced abortions, sterilizations, and infanticide still occur in China. Yet still, mid-level officials have been put in impossible situations regarding the one-child policy there leading to the continuation of these practices. But as the Washington Post reports, the move towards a two-child policy may put a stop to these archaic and barbaric acts.

Good article in the NYT about how the Chinese government released a new directive calling for more capitalistic reforms in the Communist nation in an effort to increase innovation and grow the middle class. These are the biggest reforms in a decade for China and we will have to see how the economy will react.

In the early 60’s, Che Guevara made a trip to the USSR to meet with Soviet officials to be celebrated by the Russians as the new face of Communism. Well, at a dinner there the food was served on China plates that Guevara quickly noticed. Now, Guevara was a strict adherent to extreme Communist austerity and even criticized his own wife once for using too much gasoline in their car and recommended she take a bus to the grocery store.

So now Guevara sat at the dinner with these officials and picked up the China plate before him during a quiet moment and said, “I see the bourgeoisie eats well here in Moscow,” and the Soviets at the dinner cringed.

Now this points out a big problem with Communism that is almost present in every case: Lead party members become very rich with their high status while ignoring the Communist treatise’s of economic equality. And this is currently taking place in China and the Chinese want it covered up.

Yesterday the NYT reported that it’s computer network was infiltrated by the Chinese military in an effort to gain info on those who recently reported that outgoing prime minister Wen Jiabao left office with a fortune of and estimated $2 billion. His office allowed him to obtain many contracts with foreign and domestic companies doing business in China and the Chinese did not want anybody to know that the specter of capitalism is looming larger and larger in China.

So, if Guevara were still alive, he would most certainly say that in China the bourgeoisie eats well also.

I stated in a post a few days ago that certain nations, including China, whose media control should be ended this far along after the Revolution there, is still harshly censoring the media. This op-ed from a former opinion writer in Southern China who resigned over his principles when the Chinese government came down on his newspaper is a great piece on this issue.